A Fox in the Wind
by Mister Fummeln
Summary: Follow Naruto as he grows up in the soul society. Naruto/Bleach cross over, NarutoxHarem fic. Original plot as well as following some canon elements! Rated M for violent notions, as well as future lemons.
1. A Zero Opportunity Situation

Disclaimer, pay attention, I'm only doing this once!: I do not own Naruto, as a character, or a show. It is owned by someone whose name I cannot spell or pronounce, and I sincerely hate him for turning a masterpiece into a barely salvagable piece of shit. I do not own Bleach. Again, it is owned by someone whose name I cannot spell or pronounce, and I don't hate him as much, just his battle formula.

Good evening, love you all, and all that good stuff. Good night, all is done and well. For those currently reading this, you may or may not know that this was vacant for quite some time... well, now it's not. I've decided to start this back up now. I was hit by inspiration, weee.

Ch. 1

A Zero Opportunity Situation

A very tall man in a black suit, and something round in a leather sheath at his side, sat cross legged, seemingly floating in the air as he watched the world below him. He rubbed his chin in deep thought and consideration, and ran his hand through his dirty blonde hair. A voice spoke from inside of his head, "_**We all know your gonna do it soon anyway, just save all three of us the time already!**_"The man growled out loud at the thing that spoke, it's voice was always annoying, no matter what it was talking about. A different voice, one that sounded unmistakably young and innocent chimed in, "**You are gonna help him aren't you Mister? You can't just leave him there...**" The man growled again, his young voice was so... he couldn't even think of the correct words to describe it. It was... pure, and never seemed to hold any malice or sarcasm... something that the tall man couldn't stand.

"_Both of you just shut up, I swear to Kami one of these days I'm going to come in there and kick... well your ass, Crazy Bastard." _The "Crazy Bastard" scoffed loudly, and in it's usual tone of disrespect said "_**Ha! You could barely handle me the first time, and besides, why's the kid get a by?**_" The affectionately called "Mister" growled once again, "_Because Hogo's a damn kid, that's why._" The Crazy Bastard scoffed again, but didn't say anything further, and neither did the other voice. The man in the suit sighed deeply, both of them were right, he would end up saving this kid.

He stood up, released the energy from underneath his feet, and slowly descended to the ground of the large village.

XxX

On the day of October tenth, it was never a good day for one "Demon Brat" as he was often called by the crowd that was now chasing him. He was a short boy, probably around the age of five or seven, and was dressed in dirty rags that had been worn many too many times. After coming out of his hiding place to scrounge garbage for food, he'd been found, and yelled at by several villagers. He had tried to just leave without any trouble, but that was unsuccessful, as now he was being chased by several villagers, and the occasional ninja as well.

They were shouting slandering insults, throwing rocks, glass, metal, and even weapons at him as he tried to escaped. A kunai sliced into his back, and he fell down, where the villagers quickly converged on his body. Tears fell from his eyes as unimaginable pain went into his body as everything from fists to pitchforks were used to harm him. He didn't understand why they were hurting him, but from what they kept saying, it was something he did... But as far as the young blonde boy knew, he had done nothing.

He silently prayed to any god that was out there to save him, to help him, to do anything but have his life be like it was. The boy had no idea that his prayers were soon to be answered.

A man in a suit seemed to descend from the heavens slowly, his left hand around some tube like object at his waist. His eyes were a dangerous shade of green, giving off enough killing intent to make the hairs stand up on the back of everyone's neck. As he drew closer, the killing intent grew, and finally, he couldn't control his anger any more. He pulled the tube out of it's leather sheath, revealing a light blue metallic tube. He seemed to shimmer out of existence for a half of a second, an reappear on the ground in front of the mob beating on the child.

He swept the tube in front of him, creating a powerful gust of energy that blew back the mob, but seemed to have no affect on the crying boy. He stared at all of the people in the mob with disgust, his deep voice ringing out "What has this world come to... harming an innocent child. You'll all be burning in hell soon." A man was about to speak up, but the tall man in the suit bashed him over the head with the tube with a sickening "Crack!" He eyed each of them with contempt, before holding his weapon in the air and shouting "Back to the basics, Hogo!" The bandaged handle of the weapon was all that remained the same, as the tube turned into a black curved blade. Serrated with dull edges, with the serrations also serrated with tiny sharp teeth. This weapon was made for pain, that much was obvious.

He stuck the sword in the ground, and walked over to grab the kid, carrying him like he was still a baby. He turned back around, and began talking with the boy, "Your gonna be okay kid, I'm the good guy." The boy sniffed loudly and wiped his eyes before looking up at the man that apparently had saved him. He wiped his nose on the back of his sleeves, and asked "Who are you Mister?" The man in the suit smiled widely, it seemed all the kids called him that... "Shun. But you can call me Mister. To whom am I speaking to?" The small blonde child had a look of confusion on his face before he understood that the man in the odd clothing was asking for a name. "Naruto!" He said his name with pride, as if it was something big and important that everyone in the entire world should know. But it seemed that his happy nature would be cut short, he was bleeding, and appeared to be in a lot of pain, so he passed out. Not expecting an answer, Shun asked,"Well Naruto," he started "How would you like it if I got you a new place to live?"

The tall man frowned deeply, no one deserved to be treated like this, he knew personally the pain that came along with it... These men and women that hurt him would pay. He passed his blade, placed his hand on the top of the hilt and said softly: "May god have pity upon your souls, may the wolf forever take you in her embrace, and may your souls forever rot in hell. First fang, Itami." He withdrew the blade from the ground, and the first large serration came off, flew up into the air, and bursted into a flash of bright light. Shun continued walking, Naruto still in his arms as loud and pained screams came out from behind him.

The man in the suit didn't have a cruel smile, he didn't have a look of satisfaction, he wasn't happy, no, he was saddened that this kind of thing occurred as it did. A rare frown still on his face, he sliced the air in front of him, producing a sliding door. It opened itself automatically, and Shun stepped through, heading back to where he had been outcast from some time ago. He was heading back to the Soul Society.

XxX

He was trying to be quiet, he was trying to be stealthy, and he really, really needed to not get caught. He had been barred from this place, and was not meant to be here, sure he still had a few friends in the Gotei Thirteen, but that counted for little if anyone but them found him. One of the few friends he had left, happened to be great at healing, and also happened to be the captain of the Fourth Division.

Shun had been dodging the occasional patrol, trying to stay unnoticed by civilians, and more than anything else, keep his spiritual pressure down! He had to get to the Fourth Divisions barracks unnoticed, and keeping his Reiatsu in check was never a specialty. He'd never been good with kido because of it, and had often blown himself up before he was able to finish the spell. He had to settle with making it go as low as possible, and being discreet at the same time.

After almost getting caught twice, he finally made it to the back door of the Fourth Squads barracks, hoping that she was up and working late. Surprisingly, the door opened for him, and he was hauled in by one Captain Retsu Unohana. She had long black hair, reaching around to her mid-back, and had two small braids that entwined together in the looked at him with a worried look on her face and said "What are you doing here? I felt you coming a mile away!" He had a small smile on his face, as he slowly unwrapped the bundle in his arms. Immediately, Unohana looked at the child with disgust, not at the boy himself, but for whoever had done this to him. She took the kid from Shun as she rushed him to a surgery room, scaring Isane a little when she called her name.

Shun was asked to stay outside of the room as they worked on him, more than likely having to give him blood and remove all the holes, slashes, and bruises on his body. When they finally finished, the two walked out of the room to talk to the tall man. "Did you just find him like this?" The captain asked. A sad look crossed his face when he looked down, "No, I was traveling around when I found several people beating him mercilessly, I ran in to save him." Both Unohana and Isane, her assistant and vice captain, looked at eachother before saying at the same time, "You always did have a soft spot for children." Shun smiled widely, and rubbed the back of his head.

He finally spoke up, "I can't keep him with me all the time... can you make sure he's taken care of?" The black haired woman nodded, knowing full well that Shun's life wouldn't be fit for a young kid, especially one that just came out of heavy surgery. Isane spoke up, "We'll make sure of it... whats his name?" The man in the suit smiled a little as he replied, in the same way that Naruto had told everyone before, "Naruto!" He paused for a moment, and finally said " Tell him I'll see him again, that I'll be there to check on him." With that, and all caution thrown to the wind, the man in the suit seemed to disappear completely from sight.

This boy's zero opportunity chance, just got alot bigger.


	2. The Man in the Monkey Suit

Ch. 2

The Man in the Monkey Suit

One Naruto Uzumaki, was running. Now, back where he previously came from, he had to run a lot, he was often chased, and beaten for seemingly no reason... this was for a different reason entirely. If one were to look at the Soul Society on a normal day, you would notice clean buildings, relatively happy people, and overall, a nice place. However, if you looked at it now...

"Get back here you damn brat!"

"Someone catch him, quick before he gets away!"

"How did this even happen?!"

The "Damn Brat" was one Naruto Uzumaki as you may or may not have guessed, but as to why he is currently being chased is different. He ducked behind a corner, jumped on top of a trash can, and took a leap up onto the roof. From there, he sat cross legged, admiring his handiwork, he had somehow managed to pain divisions Seven, and Eleven's barracks without getting caught. It wasn't that he _just_ painted them either, no, he had dyed the entire buildings pink.

Now, surprisingly it was not squad eleven headed by Kenpachi Zaraki following him, no, it was only squad seven. Tetsuzaemon Iba, the lieutenant of squad seven, was not chasing him either. As far as Naruto could tell, none of the higher seated officers were following him, and only the low down in the ranks. In fact, when Kenpachi had seen his new pink building, he almost fell over in laughter, wondering how the hell the kid had done it. Sajin Komamura was close to doing the same thing, he simply had the dignity to go back inside to do it.

So of course, it seemed that everyone who mattered thought it was funny, hell, if they couldn't catch an eleven year old kid pulling a prank on them, well, you get the idea.

So there sat Naruto, catching his breath, a huge smile on his face, and a million different thoughts in his mind. Satisfied with his work, he went back to his "home" in the fourth division, where he would likely spend most of his day. He did have to duck into an alley every now and again on his walk back, still trying to avoid irate soul reapers after his head.

* * *

XxX

* * *

The blonde haired boy walked inside, big goofy grin still on his face, proud of his work on the two buildings. As far as the day went, there wasn't much that could really make it better, it wasn't that often he got to pull of a good prank. Especially nowadays, after he had told Captain Unohana and Isane that he wanted to be a soul reaper like them, they constantly had him studying. He hated the studying, and mostly just slacked off during that time, thinking he wouldn't need it. He would be going into the soul reapers academy in two years time, and staying there for three, no one was quite sure if Naruto quite knew what that meant.

Naruto had too much spare time on his hands. He did his "studying" for about two hours each day, and helped out Fourth Division if they ever needed him. He knew quite a bit about the human body, how it ran, what made it tick, and how to heal quite a few different kinds of injuries. After all, the people who raised him like a mother and a big sister were Captain and Vice Captain of the Soul Society's medical division. Studying the human body was another thing that intrigued young Naruto, something so grandly complex that it seemed absolutely amazing to him.

He knew enough about it, to know to stay out of the way when someone was badly injured and someone else could take care of them. So he knew that neither of the two that raised him needed to be disturbed when the surgery rooms light was on and flashing. So he wandered out to the back door of the barracks, and slid open the door.

It was a large, green patch of grass, with several hospital like beds in it. It was an outdoor training area for both surgery and basic training, built so that no-one would be cramped in a small room while doing it. A few trees lay off in the back, moving slightly in the minute amount of wind. Naruto walked out to the center of the field, and laid down on his back, staring up at the blue sky, and the clouds. Especially, the clouds, as they slowly made their way across the sky, taking their time in each move, never going too fast, but still getting where they needed to be.

A tall man seemed to appear out of nowhere, in his usual dress of a suit, and slicked back dirty blonde hair. He took his long strides in walking over to the blonde boy laying on the grass, and stood behind him. "So, Naruto, how ya' been?" Naruto tilted his head back more, and his smile grew even bigger as he excitedly said "Mister Shun!" In the time that the two blondes had known eachother, the younger of the two had started calling him this, mixing both his first name, and the name that the older blonde had requested he call him.

Shun's smile grew wider when Naruto's had, and offered an arm to his younger counterpart to help him up. Naruto grabbed his forearm, and twisted around as he stood up, so that the two were now facing eachother. The man in the suit said "Sorry I missed your last birthday, I got tied up in some personal business..." The younger blonde, big goofy grin and all, replied,

"It's okay, I know your work takes a lot." Shun wasn't sure how he knew that... He really wondered what the captain and vice captain of squad four had been telling the boy about him...

"But, I did get you a few gifts to make up for it," the man in the suit said, an odd grin passing across his face for a half of a second before reverting back to normal. The younger boy was ecstatic, "Really? What'd you get me? Huh? Huh? Huh?" he persisted over and over. Finally shun laid one of his hands on Naruto's head, silencing the boy as he reached into his back pocket, pulling out two books. The first was a very thick black one, the cover was made of leather, and the pages seemed very old, there was a picture of a hand with the index and middle finger up, and the ring and little finger down. The second book was an orange one, with no picture or title on it, and the pages appeared fairly fresh and new.

Naruto was disappointed that they were books at first, but he figured that if it was from him, it would be something good. Shun launched into an explanation about the first book, "This book, is something from where I found you." A hint of sadness passed across the orange clad boys face when he mentioned that place. "In the place I found you, they have what they call Jutsu, and Chakra. Jutsu are supposed to be special techniques that people from your world can do." The young blonde had a look of amazement on his face as the explanation went on, "This book, contains several of those jutsu, and shows you how to perform them." At this point, Naruto was very excited, he didn't understand much of it, but what got across sounded really cool. "And see this orange book is a book of medicine and anatomy." A small grin crossed his face as before, "Well, I'll let you read it and find out for yourself..."

Naruto nodded in understanding, and took the books from Shun with excitement. "Now, I do have one more gift for you, although its not material like a book." Naruto urged for him to continue, expecting it to be something just as good as that book. "Naruto Uzumaki," he raised his right hand, index finger towering above all of the others, "I hereby grant you the gift, of peace." With that, he tapped Naruto on the forehead, making the young boy nearly fall before Shun caught him. He carried the boy inside the Fourth Division, set him down in a bed behind a drawn curtain, and placed a note in the central room before disappearing again.

Later, when Captain Unohana would find the note, she would read it saying,

"_I've kidnapped Naruto, and if you ever want to see him alive again... Nah, just kidding._

_Naruto is fine, he'll just be out for a few hours, I set him down on one of the beds. He'll be woozy for a bit after he wakes up, but he's fine._

_-Shun_

_

* * *

_

XxX

* * *

Naruto sat up and wiped the junk from his eyes with the back of his had as he looked at where he was. Half of the room was red, and the other half was black, separated by a thick line of blue down the middle. In the exact center of the room, was a pedestal, upon it sat a thin, tall man, with monkey like features on his body, his back facing Naruto.

"Where am I?" He asked to no one in particular, only to receive the simple answer of,

"You." Their seemed to be two voices that answered simultaneously, both coming from the man with his back turned to Naruto. The young blonde was confused, "What do you mean 'you'?" The man spun around on the pedestal, showing further his monkey like features, his voice now one instead of two "You, are inside of you, this is you. Hello you... You doesn't usually respond." Naruto was speechless, mostly because this monkey man was talking in a very confusing manner. The boy in orange asked another question, "Who are you?" the man let out a very apish laugh, and said "Oh, let me ask you then, who are you? Are you me? Am I you?" Naruto was confounded again, this person was really confusing him.

"Do you have a name?" he asked, a hint of irritation in his voice, only again, to receive a simple answer of, "Yes." There was a long pause, as Naruto waited for something else out of the man.

"Well?" he asked, irritation now very clear in his voice,

"Well what?"

"You have a name, what is it!"

"Naruto."

"So you are me?"

"Am I? That's a good question... I don't hear many of those." Anger boiled clearly in the young blondes eyes as he asked "Fine then, what am I doing here?"

"Standing. Why don't you sit, enjoy a nice cup of tea with me?" The man stepped off the pedestal, and in front of him appeared a small table, with a pot of tea, and three cups. The monkey man sat in a chair that appeared behind him, and motioned for Naruto to join him on a newly appearing chair.

The young boy walked up and sat down hesitantly, as the man poured a cup of tea for both of them, and dropped two cubes of sugar into his. The man took a small sip from his cup, and spoke, "So tell me Naruto, why are you here?" Naruto looked at him with a thousand burning questions in his eyes, but responded, "I don't know why I'm here, that's why I asked you earlier." The blonde boy looked down at the cup of tea, and then back up to the monkey. Finally, he responded "And unfortunately, I cannot tell you why you are here, that is something you must discover in your own time. Heheh, I said time." The monkey broke out in an uncontrollable laughter, confusing Naruto as to why that word was so funny.

Finally, the man stopped and said "I forgot, you of all people, have all of the _time_ in the multiverse." This confused the young boy greatly, but he knew by now that if he asked what it meant, he would get another cryptic answer. Just as that very same thought crossed his mind, the monkey said "No no no! You must ask questions! If you never ask, then you never receive, if you never receive, you'll never grow. So, ask!" The look of confusion on the boys face was very, very obvious, and he had the urge to get out of here as soon as he could.

"What do you mean by time?" The monkey took another sip from his cup, and responded with,

"What time? There is no time, no space, only you, only me." The man gulped down the rest of his tea, and said, "But, you asked the right question, so for now, you are done. Peace be with you." He let out another of those apish laughs, and Naruto woke up in the hospital bed, with both Unohana, and Isame at his bed side.

The black haired medic smiled at him warmly, while the silver haired one still had a look of concern on her face. He pushed himself up on his elbows, and then sat up normally, as he looked from Unohana to Isame. Finally he asked "What?" only to receive a light knock on the head from the silver haired woman next to him. "We were worried about you, what did Shun do to you?" Naruto thought for a moment, and honestly responded, "I... have... NO IDEA!" He took a deep breath, and continued, "He said something about the gift of peace, and knocked me out." Both women looked at eachother, blinked, and then sighed in relief.

The fox boy looked at the with a questioning face, but seeing no answer, he sighed, he'd had enough troubles with questions and not getting answers. The black haired medic grinned softly at Naruto and asked for any more information on Shun's visit. He told them about the first book, the big black leather bound one, which was placed next to his bed on a small nightstand. He had kept the orange one in his back pocket, remembering the desperation in his friends voice when he told him not to show it to the two. Unohana turned to Isame, and in a completely calm voice said "Remind me the next time I see him to kick his ass for scaring me like that." The other two in the room looked at her scared conviction.

Naruto had known Both of the two for most of his life, and thought of them both as family, even if they all didn't share a last name. He also knew that Isame looked up to Captain Unohana as a mother figure, so did Naruto, and the younger of the three acted like brother and sister. He had made quite a few friends in the Seireitei, most of them were higher ups in the ranks, that had been introduced to Naruto by his "family." Of course, some others down right creeped him out, Mayuri Kurotsuchi was on the top of that list... to put it in simple terms, "Dude's just creepy as hell."

When Naruto was younger, around the age of seven, Captain Kurotsuchi had made the suggestion that he be taken in from research. He had apparently been finding it interesting he had both spiritual pressure, and an energy that he had never seen before. Unohana had put a stop to that idea as soon as it came up, no one was touching her adoptive son. Although it technically wasn't official, as there was no paper work, it had become accepted that he was "her kid." Of course, that's not to say Isame sat there and did nothing, no, she took a slightly more impatient approach and had threatened him to stay away.

The Captain of the Fourth Division then looked at Naruto with a serious face and asked, "So tell me Naruto, what do you know about a couple of pink buildings?" Naruto simply rubbed the back of his head and gave a nervous laugh. Right before being forced to stay up until late that night having to scrub every last bit of pink from the two buildings.

* * *

XxX

* * *

The next morning, Naruto woke up, in a less than usual place of the roof of the Elevenths division barracks. He had fallen asleep there after staying up so late trying to clean it, and had simply fallen asleep, feet facing to the ground on the slanted roof. After waking up, he slid down the roof slowly, and hit the ground with a roll. He got up and went off, to a place he often went when he wanted to be alone.

It was a small clearing, around twenty meters wide in an oval shape, with thick forest surrounding it, and a few boulders that looked oddly out of place. Some of them were larger than him, some smaller, but most of them were roughly his five foot three height. He often wondered if this clearing was used for something else, but cast the idea aside whenever it came up. Naruto pulled out his black book, and opened to the first page. It contained a detailed description of what the energy "Chakra" was, and it seemed to be written very simply, and it was surprisingly easy for him to understand. It talked about how chakra was life energy found in the body of every living thing, from humans all the way down to plants. It talked about how humans, and some animals, had complex networks in their bodies that chakra was fairly evenly distributed to. It went on and on and on about so many things, and Naruto was so intrigued, he just wanted to suck all of the information in.

And so, by the time he finished, it was probably around three o' clock, and the sun was beginning to go down. It all flowed to Naruto so easily, it was almost as if the book had been written specifically so he could understand it. Even the handwriting, the spindly spider scratch it was, was similar to his own handwriting, and so for him, was easy to read. Finally, after that section of the book was finished, it went into a section about Ninjutsu.

Ninjutsu, according to the book, was basically anything that created a real effect on the outside world. It had a very long list of the techniques and how to pull them off, and gave a bunch of really basic ones, and advanced ones, based on ranks from "E" to "S." It only contained two "S" jutsu, but there was enough in between to make up for it. The first one it listed, was something known as the Kawarimi, and was used to switch your body with a nearby object.

It talked about this jutsu for about half of a page, and when Naruto was finished he figured he'd give it a try. He walked over to one of the boulders, and did what the book called "Molding Chakra," before yelling out "Body Replacement!" There was a large puff of smoke, and from that smoke came the cry of "OW MY FREAKING FOOT!" which was heard all the way back in the Squad four barracks. Elswhere, Unohana and Isame sighed, Naruto had injured himself again.

* * *

XxX

* * *

Finally, after several more failed attempts, although none as painful as the first attempt, Naruto had been able to switch places with the object, even if it was only a few feet away. Regardless, the boy in orange walked home with a big grin on his face, a limp in his step, and half of his foot smashed. After having said foot fixed up, he went to sleep.

He awoke again, in a similar room to as he had the first time, the room that was half red, and half black, with a thick blue stripe in the center. The one thought that ran through his mind was '_great, I get to play twenty questions with the crazy monkey again._' And yes, there sitting on the podium, facing Naruto, was the monkey man.

"Well?" Naruto asked after a long silence.

"Well what?" The monkey asked with honest questioning in his voice.

"We're going to play this game again aren't we?"

"What game?" Naruto took a deep breath, he calmed himself down, this... thing, was annoying, but there was no point in getting angry at it. "Aah, good choice, peace is always good to have in this realm." The boy in took another deep breath, the monkey was starting to get on his nerves again.

"What realm would that be?" He finally asked, making the monkey give a big grin and another of it's loud laughs. "That's another good question! That makes two in a day, most can barely do one!" The monkey stepped down from the podium and said "Come, walk with me, follow you, into the depths of you..."


	3. So You Wanna Be a Soul Reaper?

Authors note: Hello and welcome to chapter three. I would have had this update out sooner, but... well, my computer blew up... I scavenged the hard drive and got a new system now. I'm happy with the response so far, over one thousand views, three hundred author pluses, two hundred favorite stories, ninety story alerts, and seventeen reviews. Keep it up! This chapter continues directly after chapter two, but contains many time skips. So... yeah. Also, Naruto enters the academy next chapter, and your probably gonna say something about the students I placed there... Some of the famous characters will be going same year, regardless of when they actually went, and who they went with. Also, I made a mistake while writing the last chapter, Naruto will be fifteen when he enters the academy, and will be there for three years. So read! YO! Ch. 3 is finally here, for those of you that have already read this chapter, may be thinking "Wasn't this already up?" Yes, yes it was. I was hit by a hacker, and only had about a quarter of Ch.3 salvaged, so now it's reconstructed. It's pretty damn close if I do say so myself, and Ch. 4 is just around the corner. Good luck with finals fellow students!

A Fox in the Wind

Ch. 3

So You Wanna Be A Soul Reaper?

Naruto sighed, the monkey man was going to keep this up, and he couldn't help but blame Shun for doing this to him in the first place. The monkey took his long strides, stopping at the edge of the blue strip, leading to the red area. He looked at the orange clad boy, tilted his head and said "Come, come, you must see what you has to show you." Naruto took a deep breath, and followed the confusing man into the red.

The monkey stepped through, nothing out of the ordinary in his moves, however, when Naruto stepped through, it felt like he was moving through cold syrup. He moved slowly, easing his body through what seemed like a thick liquid, and finally got the last of his body through. The room felt resoundingly cold and the air was heavy, the air was damp with moisture and was hard to breath. However the monkey continued to walk as if nothing was wrong, and seemingly not even taking notice of Naruto's difficulty.

It was a large room, taller than the boy's eyes could see, as the air got too dark to see any further. The room was dimly lit by several torches lining the walls, one placed every several yards. It was roughly rectangular in shape, but the corners weren't... Well, corners, they rounded out where the end of the wall should have been. At the end of the room, opposite to where the two newest guests arrived, was a large cage with thick iron bars reaching up as far as the ceiling, and a piece of paper with the word "Seal" on it stuck to the center bar.

The monkey man began to walk towards the cage, and slowly, Naruto followed, having to grit his teeth at the intense pressure as he went. When the man finally reached the cage he knocked on the bars and shouted "Wake up Foxy, we have a host!" A very loud roar let out, drowning out all other small sounds in the area, and making Naruto cringe. "_**What could you possibly want?! I've known you for less than a day, and already I'm sick of you being here!**_"__The monkey man visibly frowned, tilted his head to the side, and said "Aww, you don't want you around? Why wouldn't you want you here?" A growl came from the cage, before the same loud voice came out, "_**What do you want? I may have all eternity, but that doesn't mean I want to spend it talking to you.**_" The monkey looked over to Naruto, and said "You and I is very angry today, I'm apparently angry at myself today."

The blonde boy looked at the monkey again in confusion, but steeled himself as the monkey introduced him "Me, this is you, me, this is you." He said, first gesturing to the cage, then to Naruto, and back again, swinging his long arms. Naruto sighed again, he would never get the way that this... thing, spoke, it seemed to refer to everything as if he was it, and it was him. A large red eye, with a slit for a pupil, appeared behind the bars, and looked first to the monkey man, then to Naruto. It chuckled slightly, and said "_**Ahh, my host, finally meeting you after ten years.**_" Naruto sighed again, great, this one spoke cryptically as well.

There was a low rumble in the back of the large things throat, sounding somewhere between a purr and a growl. "It's... nice to meet you to?" With mock offense in it's voice it said "_**Aww, was that a question? And I always sooooo looked forward to meeting you.**_" Great, it was also sarcastic, just what he needed. "Who are you?" Naruto asked after a short pause, curiosity lacing his words, as he took a few steps forward to the large cage, and it's inhabitant. The large being cackled loudly, "_**Me? I am the Kyuubi no Kitsune!**_" It was a loud and flashy introduction, to which Naruto could only respond,

"Who?" the large things ego seemed to deflate quite a bit at the blondes question, but it immediately rebounded, shouting, "_**The Kyuubi no Kitsune, hated by men, feared by demons, respected by everyone! Ring a bell damnit?!**_" The orange clad boy placed a finger under his chin and thought for a moment, before responding "Nope." Again, the Kyuubi's ego deflated heavily.

A thought entered Naruto's mind, "If you're so almighty and powerful, what are you doing the mind of a ten year old?" Once again, the boy had deflated the giants giant ego, making the monkey man give another of his loud and apish laughs. "_**That's not the point...**_" the giant beast started, starting to breath harder from the anger being built up. The large thing seemed to shrink, slowly turning down to the size of the other two present, before finally revealing the form of a woman.

She had long red hair, hanging loosely down to her lower back, and red eyes that had the same slits as the big eyes. She was wearing a black tunic type shirt, with dark red stripes passing inside the shoulders on either side, and simple black leggings. She was a little taller than Naruto, with long legs and fairly large feet, and a slender body. She wasn't entirely thin though, she did have nice curves accentuated throughout her body. What stood out the most though, were two fox ears resting on the top of her head, and a large fox tail swaying back and forth behind her.

"_**The point is...**_" She continued, her voice suddenly sultry and feminine, taking a few steps forward to be directly next to the bars, "_**That I'm offering you a deal, one that might just be too good to pass up.**_" Naruto took a step forward, his curiosity piqued he asked "And what would that deal be?" The fox lady gave a sly smile and placed her hands on the bars before continuing, "_**It's very dank, dark and cold in here. This is your mind, you can change it to be more... accommodating.**_" The orange clad boy looked at her, then at the monkey, and with a look on his face that clearly said 'Really?' asked "I can?" The monkey man smiled widely, and with another small laugh said "We is in the realm of you, you is in the realm of we! This is your realm, you can do what you want!"

The blonde boy sighed, he was really getting sick of hearing this thing talk, it was worse than the studying sessions that Unohana and her silver haired vice captain set up for him. He did however, partially understand that 'yes, yes you can,' was somewhere in his words.__"And what do I get in exchange?" he asked after having to take the time to contemplate the monkeys words. The red headed lady retained her sly smile as she answered "_**I can give you power, enough to do anything you could possibly want.**_" Naruto's eyes widened at her words, and she smiled to see that she had interested him. Naruto rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment, before raising his index finger and saying, "No."

The fox lady blinked, and then shouted "_**WHAT?! Why would you turn down that offer?!**_" Rage boiled in her eyes as she glared scornfully at Naruto. "I'll help you, but I don't really want your power... I'd prefer to do it on my own." Her anger dissipated almost immediately, replaced by a look of confusion instead, "_**Why would you turn down the offer of power?**_" The boy smirked, and with the same big smile he used to introduce himself, said "Because I'm gonna be the strongest there is, using my own power!" He turned to the monkey man, and asked "How am I supposed to change this place?" The man smiled, and said in his usual way "We are inside of you, what you wants to happen in here, you get!"

"Not very descriptive..." Naruto muttered under his breath, only half getting what the monkey was saying."So if I want it, it's here..." he said in a small whisper as he closed his eyes and thought of a calming place. His mind wandered, reaching all over the soul society, the fourth division barracks, the small clearing behind it, and it finally rested where he always felt calm, the small training area in the small forest. He opened his eyes, and there he was, he did a quick three-sixty with his body, looking around, and noting that the air was still the same heavy, hard to breath stuff it was before. It was a good representation of the training area, except behind them where there was a large blue wall, likely leading back to where Naruto had first started.

He looked back at the Kyuubi, and noted that she was no longer behind bars, but rather had a thick metal bracelet on, with the word "Seal" on it. She also seemed to be taking in her new surroundings, before turning back to the blonde boy and saying "_**Not quite what I was expecting, but it'll do... anything is better than that damn cell...**_" She paused for a moment, and took a step towards Naruto, before leaning forward, and saying "_**Thank you."**_ She then proceeded to kiss him on the forehead, whereupon his world went black again, signifying the end of his time here.

_Two years later, October 11__th_

On the day of October the tenth, Naruto had his birthday, nothing big, only a few congratulations for living another year, and the occasional pat on the back. He had received a few simple gifts, the most notable being a wooden training sword, that had been weighted specifically for him. He had been offered the day off working for squad four, but he refused and continued working. He had been silent most of the day, his birthday often brought back unwanted memories, and needed the silent work to distract his mind.

After a comment from Unohana saying that so much work was bad for an eleven-year-old, and that if nothing else, he should rest, he spent the day staring up at the clouds. Both Unohana and Isame knew of the boys past, and that his birthday was often a sad and humbling time for him. All the same, both joined him towards the end of the day, staring up at the now orange sky, watching the clouds pass by. It was a pleasant silence, as all three of them simply sat there, unspeaking, with the only noise being small amounts of wind, and eachothers breath. When the sun had finally peaked beyond the horizon, and the last bit of sunlight was about to leave, both girls leaned over and kissed the boy on the forehead. All three stood up, and slept easy that night, even Naruto, who snored softly in a dreamless sleep.

Early that morning, likely around two A.M., Naruto awoke to the sight of a tall figure sitting at the edge of his bed. The blonde boy yawned and scratched the side of his face, as he said "Mister Shun? Is that you?" It took a moment for the boy's sleepy brain to realize what his own voice had said, before his eyes shot open and he sat up straight very quickly. He barely caught himself from yelling as he said quietly "What are you doing here?" The tall man in the suit smiled widely as he responded to the sleepy boy, "Well, I figured I'd visit you while I could, everyone's still asleep, so I figured this would be as good a time as any..." The two stared at eachother in a short silence before Shun finally spoke up,

"How'd you like the presents I gave you last time?" Naruto gave a big smile, remembering the two books "I loved both of the books, and I'm almost finished with that jutsu one!" His voice had raised towards the end of his sentence, causing Shun to make motions with his hands to keep it down.

"Geez kid, you're almost finished? What kind of a training regimen have you been on?" Naruto's smile, if possible, got wider at the offhanded praise from the man "I've been working hard every day, and now, all I have left is the last two parts of the book!" Shun's smile turned into a weird grin, one that Naruto had also seen about a year ago... "And what about the orange book?" The blonde boy's face turned a new shade of red, as he tried to get a handful of words out, more thoughts passed through his head, and a small amount of blood began to trickle out of his nose1. The man in the suit had to cover his mouth to stop himself from laughing as he made dismissive motions at Naruto with his other hand "I thought so. Lets leave it at that then."

As the blonde boy's face returned to normal, he finally regained the ability to ask: "What was the gift of peace? Now I have a monkey and a fox in my head that bother me every other night..." Shun's smile turned into a bit of a smirk, and then a look of confusion as he rolled things over in his brain "The monkey is understandable... but a monkey and a fox?" He rubbed his chin in thought, he knew that there was supposed to be both the monkey and one other... but his Zanpakto shouldn't have revealed itself for several years now. Seeing his confused look, Naruto, in turn, was confused, he had known Shun to have all answers. The tall man shook his head, deciding to investigate further, presuming that it might have been something common among people from his world.

Shun stood up from the edge of the bed, and walked to stand next to Naruto, and leaving his question unanswered said "Now whats this I hear about two pink buildings?" The blonde boy made his usual show of laughing nervously and rubbing the back of his head, assuming he was in some kind of trouble. The tall man's smile just grew that much wider, as he gave a big thumbs up and said "Reminds me of stuff I did at your age... did you get caught?" The usually orange clad boy, currently in sleepers clothes, had a short look of confusion, followed quickly by a swelling ego and a face full of pride. "No! But by then they had started to link these kinds of things to me..." Shun simply smiled and patted him on the head.

The two conversed more, mostly consisting of Shun asking Naruto about his life, and Naruto giving descriptions of what it was like. They talked about how Naruto was going to the soul reaper academy soon, and Shun told him about some of the teachers back in his day, and requested that if he met a Professor Nobu, he would tell him hello from the man. He asked how Unohana and Isame had been, and if they had been trying to keep him out of trouble. But all in all, they talked about Naruto. The boy had known from past experiences that Shun didn't like talking about his past, and the few times he did he always got a glazed over look in his eyes. It was almost as if even the pleasant memories from his past were painful. That being, Naruto knew to let him speak of it when he wanted to, and tended not to ask much about the mans past.

They talked most of the morning, up until the clock read six-o-clock and Shun said he needed to leave before someone saw him. He ruffled the younger blondes hair and told him he would see him soon before disappearing as he had done so many times before.

_Two years later, two nights before entrance tests to academy_

Naruto sat exhausted, for the past while he had been attempting the last few sections of the book Shun had given him, but could never get them right. The book had said that anything above the higher ranking "C's" required what it called "Perfect control of the bodies chakra points." Something the blonde boy obviously did not have. In between practicing with his wooden sword, his increased study time with Unohana and Isame, and planning pranks, he didn't have much time to work on his chakra. The book had contained several exercises to help with it, but Naruto being his stubborn self, ignored them. He was quickly growing frustrated, and opted for a change of scenery while he took a break. He left his small clearing and took a walk to his normal place of eating, a small ramen stand that sat fairly clean, in the western end of the Seireitei.

Ramen was the blondes favorite food, he couldn't get enough of the noodles ever since he had been given a cup of the instant stuff for lunch. That was a year ago, and since then all the ramen stands had prospered greatly, one even got enough money to open up a second stand. Surprisingly, this was no exaggeration. At the very least the boy had two large bowls, although his record was twelve, and he ended up working free for a week to pay it off. Again, this was no exaggeration, something that truly scared both the captain and the vice captain of squad four, enough to have given Isame bad nightmares about ramen for a few days.

That being said, Naruto arrived at the small stand, and brushed aside the flaps that stood in between him and his lunch. The small stand consisted of a counter that spanned the length of the building, with several stools lining it. It wasn't painted, but rather kept the natural dark color of the wood it was built out of. There was a large, muscular man behind the counter, looking around his mid-to-late forties, and was well built, but dressed in a white shirt, covered by a white apron, with gray leggings. He had his back faced to the entrance, as he continued cooking his ramen, but still said "Welcome back Naruto, here for your customary five bowls?" Naruto wasn't sure how he knew it was him, but didn't question it as he sat down. It wasn't until then that the blonde noticed another person sitting next to him, dressed plainly in what appeared to be a man's haori. However, it was a she, with long orange hair that went down to her mid-back. She looked to be around Naruto's age, more than likely a year or two older than him, due to her most... obvious... assets.

The man behind the counter turned around and placed a bowl of ramen in front of the fifteen year old boy, who immediately forgot about the woman next to him, and after a quick "Thank you!", began slurping down the noodles with gusto. It was almost comical, seeing the woman sitting next to him slowly and carefully eating her noodles, whilst the boy sitting next to her seemed to be eating at a hundred mile-per-hour. When he was almost finished with his second bowl2, the woman turned to him and said "Geez kid, slow down or your gonna choke..." As she said that, a particularly thick bundle of noodles got lodged in his throat, and she patted him less then gently on the back, trying to dislodge the food.

After she hit him on the back for the third time, the noodles finally got unstuck, and he swallowed hard, making a mental note to _chew_ next time. "Thank you, thank you!" he spat out, turning to the woman next to him and bowing lowly. Not until then did he notice her entire body, and even with the loose men's clothing on, she was enough to make a small amount of blood trickle from his nose, especially since in her actions, her top had opened up a bit more, he quickly wiped the red away from his nose. She looked at him for a moment and smiled before saying "Yeah yeah, just make sure to chew your food slowly next time." Naruto giggled lightly and responded with the excuse "Sorry, got to keep my energy up, I'm going to be a soul reaper soon after all!" he said with a matter-of-factly kind of tone.

She gave him a blank look for a moment before saying, "You too?" The boy tilted his head to the side in confusion before understanding what she was saying. He held out a hand to her, and said "Yup... small world huh? Names Naruto Uzumaki, great to meet you!" The woman took his hand and shook it before responding, "It certainly seems that way doesn't it? Rangiku Matsumoto." They sat there for a moment staring at eachother, before someone cleared their throat from the entrance, making both turn back to their bowls with blushes. "What?" said the man who came in the doorway "I come all the way here to see my favorite blonde knucklehead, and you can't even say hello?" The voice was unmistakably familiar to said blonde knucklehead, but foreign to the woman sitting next to him.

Naruto spun around in his seat at the voice, and shouted fairly loudly "Mister Shun!" said man smiled widely and stepped closer to his younger friend. He stepped in between both Naruto and Rangiku, throwing his arms around the pair of would-be soul reapers before saying "And my my Naruto, who do we have here, did you get a girlfriend since we last saw eachother?" Both the younger blonde and the orange headed woman tried to sputter out some sort of come back to that, but were at a loss for words. That is, until Naruto smacked him on the head, hard, making the tall lecher fall to the ground. He stood up slowly rubbing his head saying "C'mon, you know I was just kidding around... I doubted you could get a girlfriend anyway," he said with the same wry grin, making the orange clad boy want to strangle him.

"But all joking aside, it's nice to meet you miss..." he looked to Naruto for some sort of introduction, and after a quick pause got "That's Rangiku, she's going to be a soul reaper to." Shun's eyes widened slightly, as he secretly ogled the girl for a moment before rubbing his chin and saying "Well, that _is_ interesting. Do you mind if I borrow him though? I was about to show Naruto here something to help him..." The aforementioned blonde was immediately on his feet at the mention of "something" figuring it was bound to be spectacularly amazingly super. Rangiku blushed a bit under his gaze, and reddened even more when she was asked _permission_ for Naruto to leave.

Shun smirked, and put a wad of bills on the counter before grabbing the blondes shoulders, almost immediately disappearing. Leaving a confused ramen cook standing behind the counter, and a confused strawberry-blonde in front of it.

XxX

The blonde duo arrived suddenly in a large clearing He removed the leather sheath from his belt, and sat cross legged while laying it across his lap. "Sit down for a moment." The tall man in the suit said, his voice surprisingly calm, and his face completely neutral. Naruto sat down in front of him, in a similar fashion, and let out a loud breath as he settled down. "Now shut your eyes, and open your mind." Shun closed his eyes, following his own advice as the blonde boy quickly followed suit. _In, out, in, out, in, out. Steady. Create the rhythm in which your mind must flow. In, out, in, out, in out. _Shun listened intently to Naruto's breathing, and acted quickly before the boy became restless.

Shuns eyes opened all the way, one of his hands came off of his knees, and formed a gun-type shape with the thumb, Index, and middle fingers. He pointed it at Naruto, and made a slow firing motion, the hand flying back slightly as if in recoil. He were placed into a deep sleep, Shun had placed large amounts of Reiatsu into his fingertips, and aimed it at the young blonde, activating his own stores of spirit energy. It was a trick he had picked up when he was much younger, and his teacher had used the same technique on him to awaken his dormant power.

He smiled softly when Naruto fell over, and almost immediately began drooling and snoring loudly. He wouldn't be waking up till the next day, but he would see it worth it when he woke up. Then again, this was the number one hyperactive would-be Soul Reaper we're talking about...

XxX

Black. Pure, pitch, dark, couldn't-see-a-damn-thing blackness was the only thing that Naruto could see. The air felt... familiar, it was that sense of familiarity that you get when you see a face on the street, and you know you know the guy, but the name wont come into your head. It'll rest at the tip of your tongue, and drive you mad, it'll be constantly on your mind for several days, and drive you mad but the name never comes. And that madness was eating away at Naruto, and seemed to be slowly driving him mad.

"_What are you doing here?_"

The voice was a deep, enthralling, call that seemed to beckon to him with every word, and that sense of familiarity and insanity grew.

"_I repeat, what are you doing here Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki?"_

Naruto tried to answer, but his mouth felt so dry and heavy. He tried to ask why he had added "Namikaze" to his name. And more than anything, he tried to remember whose voice it was.

"_Can't speak? Damn kid. Are you sure that you are me?_"

Anger flooded the young boys body, he wouldn't be called weak by... by... who? No, he didn't even know this man... did he? Distractions distractions, he needed to focus. "What _am_ I doing here?" he asked incredulously, the anger palpable in his voice, he was really getting tired of that sort of question. A low throaty chuckle came from all around, it was promptly cut off by a stunning silence, that while probably only lasted a moment, felt like a lifetime for the young blonde man.

"_I guess the simple answer would be, to find you._"

Naruto clenched his fist, and brought it up in front of him, only to realize that he couldn't see that either.

"_You are weak. Do you want power? No, thats right, you wouldn't accept the foxes either. But I'm not the fox, nor am I an external power source... so let me ask again, do you want power? No, let me rephrase that, why would you want power?_"

Naruto's voice was dry and raspy, but he was still able to speak, "I want to protect my precious people."

"_A simple goal, but no matter, you are apparently not ready for the power. You can't even see my realm, it's almost sad._"

Naruto growled at the mans words, he was making him uncharacteristically angry, he was going to kill Shun when he got out of here. He closed his eyes, and the blackness stayed the same, he tried to imagine himself out of here, thinking of himself simply sleeping in his bed, or training in his usual field, but the blackness remained.

"_You are weak._"

"No..." Naruto almost whispered, trying harder to leave.

"_Your friends and family will die, and it will be because of you._"

"No..." Naruto said louder, as images of everyone he knew being slaughtered, tears began streaming down his cheeks, the images flashing before him were horrible. Shun lay impaled on a spear held by a faceless warrior, blood dripping out of his mouth and his face vacant and pained.Unohana was standing, a knife placed deeply into her chest, her hands lay over the hilt and her face pained, her body bloody. The images went on and on, as one by one, his friends and family lay in one big bloody pile as the world around them burned in a bright fire.

"NO!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, the images continued flashing, each one more and more vivid and gory than the last. "I AM NOT WEAK! I WILL NEVER LET THAT HAPPEN!" The images stopped. The blackness began to fade, slowly being replaced by colors, all swirling around and around into a big tornado fusion of every color the eye could perceive. And then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. Naruto opened his eyes, and before him stood a white columned room, with a high arched roof. Pictures of men fighting lions and large one-eyed men roamed the walls and lined the columns. Larger than life statues of men and women lined the walls, with swords and shields in cases and holsters sat next to them. But in the center of it all, stood a single thin man, wearing a white robe that wrapped loosely around his body. He likely stood around six foot three, but still would have been dwarfed by at least a foot by Shun, and several feet by the statues that stood around him.

"_Welcome Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki, to my realm._" The man said, a broad smile on his face, and his arms open, gesturing to the room around him. Naruto had a scowl on his face, and both of his fists were clenched, he just wanted to sock this man, for putting him through all those... horrible, horrible images. Intending to do just that, he took a step forward, only to stop when the man disappeared. The voice came from above now, "_Tsk tsk_ _Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki, you can't touch me, in __**my**__ realm, it simply wont work that way._" There stood the man, upside down, on the ceiling of the building, hands folded neatly behind his back, and his smile still large on his face. Naruto's upper lip quivered a bit in a scowl, before he took a deep breath and calmed himself, regardless of the fury burning in him.

"_We will meet again Naruto Uzumake Uzumaki, and congratulations for passing my first test._" The world went black, and our young blonde friend, once again, fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

_Two days later, day of entrance test to academy_

"Naruto, Naruto! Wake up!" A females voice called out to a violently shaking blonde boy... wait... violently shaking? "I'm up, I'm up!" Naruto yelled loudly as the shaking stopped and he opened his eyes to reveal Isane being the perpetrator of shaking him. "What am I..." Naruto started, only to be quickly interrupted by the tall silver haired woman lifting him up on her shoulder and saying "No time, no time you're late, you're late!" She opened up what Naruto assumed to be the fourth division barracks' door and lept outside. "Where are we going?!" he yelled, squirming slightly under her grasp, only to receive the prompt answer of "No time, no time, we're late, very very late!" Naruto was about to open his mouth to say something, but was quickly interrupted by a voice in his head, calmly saying: "_You know, you should really just listen to the pretty ladies more often._" Naruto stopped squirming, and looked up at Isane, before inventing a new shade of red. This was the first time he had looked at Isane and seen her as a woman, and not a sister... he quickly blamed it on the book that Shun had _forced_ him to read, and looked away.

Naruto didn't have time to think about the voice in his head, as Isane dropped him in front of a building, gave him a quick kiss on the forehead, making him blush again. "Hurry inside, and good luck! Just remember the trick that Captain Unohana taught you... Oh! Here, this was next to you when you arrived!" She shoved something leathery into his hands and shooed him into a room... another dark, dark room. That was something that Naruto, above all, hated.

"You are late Mister Uzumaki," a voice came from the darkness, making this scene feel all too familiar to the young boy. "Hopefully this will not be a recurring... thing." The lights flicked on quickly, making Naruto shield his eyes from the sudden brightness. He looked around, and before him stood a plain white room, with a plain white table in the center, lining the table were four men, and one woman. On the far left, was a man in a simple black haori, with a black stripe going down the center. He wore thin wire framed glasses, and while he stared intently at Naruto, every time a speck of dust became noticeable in the light, or a small sound came from somewhere outside, he would turn and put his full attention on it. Next to him, was a woman in a blue haori, she had a very bored look on her face, and leaned on her arm as she looked sleepily in Naruto's direction. The man next to her looked all business, and wore an air of superiority over himself. He dressed formally in the traditional soul reaper's robes, and had a well muscled upper body, his hands were folded neatly in front of him, resting on the table. The man to his right had his feet up on the table, and had a long piece of thin metal sticking out of his mouth, his hands clasped behind his head. The final man had no clearly distinguishable features, and seemed to just kind of become unnoticeable unless you looked directly at him. His arms rested loosely on the table, and just seemed to be completely relaxed and stone faced.

"Let us begin," the man in the center said, obviously the same that spoke before, "Tell us, why do you want to become a soul reaper?" Naruto's mind flashed back to the images that had been placed in his head, and grimaced a bit before answering "Because I want the power to protect my precious people."

"A lust for power, but an unselfish one, admirable." The man who had his feet up on the table said, still barely having his eyes on the boy, "He's in with me." The man in the center nodded, making a mental note of the man's "vote."

"Next, what do you know about the duty of-" he began, but was quickly cut off by Naruto,

"Excuse me, but what does this have to do with anything?" he asked, his face still completely straight. "I mean, I can understand wanting to know why I want power, but isn't just about every thing else what classes are for?" The man on the far right grunted softly, gaining the attention of the other five in the room, "He shows cognitive ability to question the questionable, something fairly rare, I'd allow him in." The woman on the left spoke up next,

"He has great spiritual pressure for an untrained boy," her voice bored and uninterested, "He could be molded fairly well." The man in the center nodded, making not of the mans vote, and the woman's words. "Well Mister Uzumaki, thats a record, two votes in less than two questions, and you even got Miss Korena to give praise." A ghost of a smile cracked his lips, before quickly disappearing into his normal business like face. The woman next to him scowled and gave the man an evil eye, but kept quiet and rested her chin back on her hand.

"Mister Uzumaki, we ask these questions for many reasons, if you knew them, that would defeat the purpose." Naruto gave a slight nod, his head finally starting to come together from being groggy and awakening so abruptly. "So, why do you think you deserve, out of out four hundred and thirty nine candidates, to join the academy?" Naruto fiddled with the object Isane had placed into his hands, before taking awhile to answer "Because I can promise that I will try my hardest, and be the best there can be!" The man with the wire framed glasses raised a finger hesitantly, and opened his mouth, as if to speak, but nothing came out for awhile. Finally, he got out "The boy... has the fighting... spirit," his voice was somewhat finicky, with an almost overbearing tone to it, "He has... my... v-v-v... v... vote." He lowered his finger, and suddenly lost interest in Naruto, but very interested in the way that the light showed just right so that the dust became visible.

"And he has my vote as well, I trust my colleagues judge in character. I must say Mister Uzumaki, I am very impressed, Mister Okamoto here usually won't give a vote till much later in the 'game,' I believe you've set some sort of record." He paused for a moment, to see if anyone else wished to say anything, before continuing, "And, with four out of..." he started, only to be quickly interrupted by the woman to his left, "Five out of five." Her face was still bored, and all the men suddenly had her eyes on her, the man with the long strip of metal in his mouth fell backwards out of his chair. The quiet and emotionless man next to him casually glanced over at her, but had his eyes much wider than normal. The man in the center, fell out of his usual business like manner, and burst out laughing, a deep throaty laugh that echoed throughout the rooms white walls and undoubtably made its way out side as well. The man finally quieted down, and wiped a tear that had begun to form in his eyes, before finally waving Naruto out of the room, not being able to talk from holding back giggles. Confused, the blonde boy walked back out of the room with a very "What the hell?" type of look on his face.

Holding back his laughs, and clearing his throat, the man turned to the woman next to him and said "Thats the first time in over fifty years that you've even made a positive comment on someone, but he even gets your vote? Why the sudden change?" The woman smirked with a "Humf" and responded with a small smile on her face "Kid's already got his zanpakto." The man on the end of the table, with the wire framed glasses, immediately stood up and ran out the door, presumably following the boy, muttering something under his breath about "Him again."

Authors rant: Thank you all for reading this chapter, and being so patient when my computer decided to kill itself. Not much else to say.

Brownie points: Points have been awarded for the color scheme, and the Icha Icha book. I'm still looking for someone to tell me who Shun is, and someone to get the monkey right. Ten points are still waiting to be awarded for valid harem suggestions. Uhh... thats it, shoo.


End file.
